


Ring of Fire

by evelynIttor



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Dehydration, Elemental Magic, Gen, Heat Stroke, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Wicca
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 12:45:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1226836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evelynIttor/pseuds/evelynIttor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When all the snow melts in the middle of the hunt for a snow spirit, everything is turned upside down. As the temperature continues to rise, the Winchesters struggle to determine the cause of the heat wave before it claims their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ring of Fire

Dean woke up in a puddle of his own sweat. The blankets clung to his skin and he tossed them off, breathing a sigh of relief as the marginally cooler air in the room hit his boiling flesh. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, his elbows creating indents in the mattress where sweat pooled.

"Sam?" His throat was dry and he swung his legs off the bed and wiped one arm across his face to clear away the sweat from his eyes.

"When did it get this hot?" Sam groaned from his bed three feet away. "I could have sworn it was January in the middle of Minnesota and we're tracking a fucking snow spirit that's making the polar vortex which has disappeared."

"Right?" Dean huffed and trudged towards the bathroom, turning the tap on the bathtub. He emerged a moment later. "Taps are all busted." He opened his duffle and pulled out a plastic bottle full of holy water and tossed another to his prone brother.

The holy water was warm too. Dean pulled on a t-shirt to go with his boxers and opened the door. "Sam, something's wrong."

The winter wonderland that they had fallen asleep to was gone. The sidewalk and road were bone dry, not a sign of the two feet of snow that had been there when they'd gone to bed, and the air was as hot and heavy outside the room as it had been inside. Dean leaned far enough out of the doorway to see the clear blue sky above.

"Whoa." Sam was pushing against his, elbowing his way out of the room. "Did we move?"

"Not unless the car and the entire motel moved with us." Dean headed back inside. "I'm gonna turn off the heat. And then we'll go check this out."

After dressing and splitting another bottle of holy water, the brothers piled into the car and Dean turned the key, the engine's usual purr was gone, replaced with a terrible sputtering noise before it fell silent altogether.

"What the hell?" Dean pulled the key, got out of the car and walked around to the back. "Damn it." He reached a finger into the gas tank. "I thought you filled her up."

"I did, full tank just before we stopped for the night." Sam joined him at the back of the car. " This is ridiculous."

"Yeah, because now, we're walking to town." Dean flipped the gas cap shut and locked the doors. "Start moving."

It was hot going under the blazing sun, and despite being rather early in the morning, the sun was directly overhead and showed no sign of budging from its place. The ground was dry and hard under their feet, as if it had been weeks since the last rain, but there had been snow on the ground the night before. The roads were quiet and empty for their journey and even the gas station that had appeared in the distance looked deserted.

It wasn't. There weren't any cars there, but the line of people was spilling out the door and the ice box had already been plundered for its water.

"Use your abnormally long neck and tell me if there is any canned gas in there." Dean told his brother, before heading off to join the line. Sam joined him a moment later. "Well?"

"There might be some. The tanks are empty though. People are buying water and pop and anything. I think that this water issue has affected more than just the hotel."

"Yeah." Dean dug into his jacket pocket and produced another bottle of holy water, offering it to Sam. "Here, have a drink. It's too hot out here for that walk we just did."

Sam drained half the bottle before handing it back. "Thanks." Dean tucked the bottle back into his jacket and pulled out his wallet when the line surged ahead.

"You think they'll still take credit cards?"

They were taking cash only and the little bottle of gas and two 1L bottles of water cost them $25. It was highway robbery, but there wasn't much they could do about it, Dean fixed the guy with the nastiest glare that he could while his mouth was dry and sweat dripped off his body.

Everyone had the same story to tell. They'd gone to bed the night before in frozen, snow piled Minnesota and woken up in this arid desert land where none of the taps worked and any liquid that hadn't been in a sealed container had evaporated.

"This is our kinda thing, right?" Sam asked as they headed away from the gas station and into town. "I mean, it's not just some freak weather thing?"

"Is it ever just a freak weather thing?" Dean offered Sam the holy water again. Sam finished the bottle and handed it back to his brother.

"I guess not. I don't even know where to start though. What makes everything dry?"

The walk into town took longer than it should have, but Dean's feet had sweated so much that his socks were squishy with every step that he took and the sun beating down on the back of his neck just seemed to sap his energy.

The town was in a panic. People lined the streets, sweat poured off their faces as they wandered around, looks of confusion and utter disbelief were common. Sam glanced around.

"I don't see any national guard or feds, so I think we're safe on that account. I'm gonna check the library. Unless you'd rather do that than canvas?"

"Nah." Dean wiped another bucket load of sweat off his face. "I'll ask around. Meet back here in two hours?"

Sam nodded and headed towards the library. They'd driven through the town yesterday, noting the location of the doctor's office, the various gas stations and their prices, diners and coffee shops, and of course, the town's library.

The library was open, the windows were as wide as they could go and Sam could hear the whir of fans working hard inside. The lights were low as they could be without actually being turned off and it felt hotter inside the building than it had been outside. But Sam headed for the front desk, trying to wipe off some of the sweat that was dripping down his face.

He greeted the librarian with a smile that pulled on the dry skin around his lips. "No air conditioning?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. It's all closed down for the winter. I guess we should have waited. Indian Summer and all." She laughed a little, it sounded forced. "And all the fluid that was in it, the freeon, it's empty. We're waiting, but the library isn't exactly top priority."

Sam nodded. "Sure, sure. Has anything like this ever happened before? You know, another Indian Summer?"

She shrugged. "We've had warm patches once and a while, but nothing like this. People are saying it's because of global warming you know. That the state will turn into a desert and it will never snow again. And Arizona will become inhabitable and everyone will move here from the South." She shook her head. "It's ridiculous."

"Of course." Sam put one of the litre bottles of water on the counter. "Do you mind if I crack this open?"

She shook her head and he twisted off the cap and allowed himself a small swallow. "You want a little?" She nodded and he handed it over, watching as her drank thirstily. "I'm gonna look for something to read, you keep cool." He grinned and this time the skin on his lips did split and he turned away and pressed his sleeve to catch the blood.

The room with the microfilm was even hotter than the rest of the library. No fans or windows in here. Sam sighed as he took a seat at the table and pulled the first box of slides closer. It was a thankless task and a fruitless search. As he set off to check the online card catalogue, he hoped that Dean had made out better asking around.

\--

"Nothing. This has never happened before, there's always been a winter. No weird stuff going on." Dean leaned back, reclining in the shade of a tree trunk. He'd never really appreciated how much leaves did for the whole shade process. "You get anything out of the library?"

"Nothing to set off any alarms. They've always had a good freeze in October or November and remained cold and snowy until spring came in March or April. But get this, I checked through the card catalogue, to see what had been in highest circulation and it's all these occult books."

Dean sighed. "Seriously? They did this to themselves?"

Sam shook his head and handed a slim book to his brother. "It's all this occult stuff."

The book was titled Where to Park Your Broomstick, A Teen's Guide to Witchcraft.

"It's Wicca and Neo-Pagan. It's big here, the library's got a huge selection. Do you think someone might have done something?"

Dean snorted and gave the book back. "I thought this was a load of hooey. It's based on the real dark stuff, but they got rid of all the evil and none of it works. Otherwise, we'd be using it. Right Sammy?"

"Then that's all I've got." Sam offered Dean his water bottle, now mostly empty. "Did you find anything?"

"There was a fire last night at the Thompson farm. It's just on the outside of town, opposite from our motel. The fire chief claims that there was no snow within a mile of the place and by the time they got there, all of their gas was gone and the taps were out. The house burned to the ground but it sounds like the best place to look."

Sam sighed, "Fine. I guess we can't get out there right now?"

"Not without the car, I'm not. You can walk out if you like, only something like 30 miles. Bring some water." Dean passed his brother the opened bottle they'd been sharing and Sam finished it off as he fished out his phone and went for the speed dial.

"I'm going to ask Bobby, see if there's anyone in the area." There wasn't. But Sam passed along a warning for people to stay away until this mess had been taken care of.

The walk back to the motel took longer than it had taken them to get to town, stop at the gas station included. That gas station was closed now and there was a sign on the door announcing that all of the beverages and gas had been sold. They still broke in and looked around, just in case something had been missed, but the shelves had been swept clean.

Dean had never been so happy to see their motel. The road was dusty under their feet and he yawned, ready to be out of the sunlight and someplace marginally cooler, with a bed. A bed would be a definite improvement. They were kicking up dirt with every step now and Dean looked down at his feet, his legs felt funny and he yawned and then the sun grew very bright and suddenly everything went dark.

He was burning up. The heat was pressing in on him and sweat was sticking and dripping, he could feel it. Dean opened his eyes, it was dark now, but his sight adjusted slowly. A motel room, their motel room. is skin felt like it was on fire and he could feel each and every piece of clothing trying to ignite a fire where they rested.

"You awake?" Sam asked from beside his bed, sweaty fingers touching Dean's forehead with a pressure that sent shivers of pain through his head.

Dean groaned and tried sat up, fingers shaking as he tried to pull his t-shirt off. Sam had stripped him down to boxers and his bottom shirt. "Yeah. What happened?" His throat was bone dry and his skin prickled in the heat as he collapsed back onto the bed, the shirt stuck around his neck.

"You passed out. Probably just the heat." Sam turned away and Dean felt something rise up in his stomach and summoned a great burst of energy, enough to push himself off the bed and across the floor into the bathroom.

The tile floor was cool against his knees, as wall the porcelain cistern which he clung to for dear life as the world spun around him so much that he barely managed to lean over the toilet in time to vomit bile into the empty bowl.

The door crashed open behind him, funny he hadn't closed it, and then Sam's hands were sliding under his armpits and lifting him up, pulling him away from the cool tile and into the room, setting him on the bed and propping him up. He closed his eyes when the movement made everything spin even faster and he felt Sam's fingers pressed into his neck and another hand on his forehead.

"What happened?" Sam asked. "Are you sick or is this related to what's going on? Maybe there are occult teenagers around. Hex bags?"

Dean groaned, the sound that came from his mouth was low and whiney and it scrapped up his throat like broken glass. "It's not witches Sam, what kind of witch has the power to do this? It's something that hates water."

Sam was gone though, out the door before Dean could finish his thought and Dean could hear the doors and trunk of the Impala slamming and the part of time that he wasn't busy feeling like utter crap he hoped that Sam wasn't abusing the vehicle without him there to supervise.

"When's the last time you drank something?"

Sam was there again, in his face with a thermometer and a big bottle of water that he was pouring out onto a cloth and into a cup. The thermometer was warm, the glass seared against his lips, but the wet cloth on his face was heavenly and then Sam was taking the thermometer and pressed the cup against his lips and the warm water was the sweetest thing he had ever tasted.

"When's the last time you drank something?" Sam asked again, pulling the cup of water away from his lips.

Dean tried to shrug, but his shoulders didn't really want to move and the gravity was too heavy. "Dunno."

Sam let him have another sip of water and Dean could feel it gurgling in his stomach.

"Not good. " He muttered. Another gurgle. "Sam!"

His younger brother used a gorilla arm to snatch a small wastebasket off the floor and propped him over it just in time to catch the mixture of water and bile that erupted from his brother's mouth and lowered Dean back down again.

"It's a fire element Sam. A really big one. Go find it, it'll turn the entire town into a flame ball if you don't stop it."

"Not going anywhere right now. It's hot and the car still won't work." Sam replied, patting Dean's face down with the washcloth again. "Why didn't you drink anything?"

"Wasn't thirsty. Saving it." Dean shrugged again. "Can I have some more water?"

Sam frowned, but he let Dean have just a few drops. They were heavenly and all too few, but Dean swallowed his complaints.

"The sun show any signs of going down? If this thing's big enough, it could just be the sun in the sky here."

"It's getting a little darker." Sam was fiddling with their bags now. "Maybe another two or three hours and it'll be cool enough to walk into town and the sun won't be as much of a risk." He came over with their medical kit and a bottle of green gel.

The aloe was soothing. Dean hadn't realised how badly he'd been sunburned, but the prickling and burning feeling on his skin abated a bit and now the only fires he felt were coming from inside his body.

"Give me some more water, I'm coming with you."

"Dean no, you passed out. You've thrown up. I'd take you to a hospital if I could. There's nothing to cool you down with here." Sam crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at the water bottle. "You couldn't even keep water down."

It took more strength than he thought he had, but Dean pushed himself up and shrugged out of his t-shirt. "Get some more of those washcloths. The water's not really cold, but it will have to do." The air hitting his skin felt cooler now and Dean breathed a sigh of pleasure when Sam returned and laid a couple of barely damp towels over his chest and legs.

"Some more water?" He asked, reaching out a shaky hand towards the 1L bottle of water on the bedside table.

"There's not much left." Sam said and he went back into the medical kit. "You want some oral rehydration salts?" Sam glanced at the water bottle. "Never mind." He came back to Dean's bed with a bag of saline and glucose. "Here, it's a little warmer than normal, but not too hot." He said, putting the plastic against Dean's hand. It felt warm to the touch and Dean gave Sam his hand when Sam held his own in question.

The alcohol wipe was cold and his skin was starting to prickle again with the aloe wiped off and Dean felt the stab of the needle and Sam pulled it out. "Sorry, sorry. Might take a few tries." Dean groaned as Sam lined it up again and the jab of the needle into his flesh burned. Sam was saying something again and he felt the needle slide out again.

"Here goes." Sam tilted his hand drove the needle home, Dean twitched at the feeling of the catheter sliding in afterwards. He watched as Sam lifted the small bag of fluid and it felt unpleasantly warm in his arm and then running up and into his chest. He arched for the bed for a moment.

"Relax." Sam's hands were on his shoulders. "Finish this and if you feel all right, and you can walk without passing out, maybe you can come with me."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, give Bobby a call while we wait. See what he can give you for a fire element. Dad just doused the last one in water, but it was tiny." He yawned. "I'm taking a nap. If you leave without me, I will make you walk when we leave this desert." He closed his eyes and found some refuge in dreams of cooler times.

\--

"Dean, wake up." Sam's voice was low and Dean blinked wearily. His whole body ached and there was sweat in his eyes again. But that was a good sign. He was getting better if he could sweat again.

"I'm up." He said, the words coming out a little easier now and raised a hand to blot away the sweat.

"Not that one." Sam caught his hand. "The bag's almost empty. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." Dean pushed himself into a sitting position. "But the room ain't spinning and I'm sweating up a storm and I'm ready to take this thing out. Bobby have an suggestions?"

"I couldn't reach him." Sam slid the catheter from Dean's hand and taped a gauze pad over the puncture. "Dad's journal didn't have much. Just said to get it wet and make sure it stays that way. That's a little hard to do that with no water anywhere."

Dean swung his legs over the side of the bed and took the clothes that Sam handed him. A t-shirt and a pair of jeans that were usually used in the messiest and dirtiest jobs. Only now they ended just a little above his knees.

"What the hell is this Sam? Short shorts, really? Do I look like that kinda guy?" Dean bent down and slipped his boots on, they were still wet with his sweat on the inside.

"You look like a guy that had heat stroke and will wear whatever he's given if he wants to hunt a fire elemental, so yeah, you look like that kinda guy." Sam responded, sporting his own jean cutoffs and thin much washed t-shirt.

Sam made him drink half of their remaining water before he even opened the door. It wasn't any cooler outside, but it was darker and without the sun beating down so heavily, somehow Dean found the strength to propel himself forwards, following his brother's footsteps in the dusty ground towards the city.

The sky in the town was heavy with smoke and people were camped up along improvised barriers that hadn't been there ten hours ago. Dean glanced around, looking for a friendly face or one that would give them answers.

"There's the librarian." Sam nodded towards one of the python clusters."I'll be right back."

Dean walked in the opposite direction, trying to put a spring in his step and a smile on face, so as to not look half dead in front of these people, looking for someone that he'd talked too before. He found the Thompson family laying on sleeping bags in the park.

"Agent Banner!" Mrs. Thompson waved him over, giving his attire a critical eye. "Have you found anything yet? Everyone's getting very thirsty. The fire department said the pipes are still blocked. They sent people down to check, but it's a couple hours hike from here without a car. So they can't do anything about the fire. It keeps spreading and they just keep evacuating people. I think they're going to call in the National Guard or something like that." She sighed.

Dean stepped back. "We're doing everything we can."

"Hey, Dean." Sam tapped his shoulder.

"Mrs. Thompson, this is my partner, Agent Stark." Dean looked at Sam, trying to communicate everything with his eyes.

"We need to speak with Alice. Is she here?" Sam asked, glancing at the rest of the family spread out leaning against the leafless trees.

The teenager sitting on the edge of the furthest sleeping bag got to her feet, and was flying into the bushes a moment later. Dean cursed and jogged after her, his breath already coming in short gasps and sweat dripping with a renewed ferocity down his back.

"Alice Thompson!" Sam was sprinting past him and Dean slowed, bending forward to brace his hands on his knees and he struggled to breathe.

Sam came back around the bend in the path a moment later, his large hand wrapped around Alice's forearm. "Now we're going to have a little chat." He pushed her against the tree.

"I didn't do anything!" She protested. "It's not supposed to work, it was just for fun!"

Dean groaned, he'd heard that story before.

"Are you okay?" Sam squatted down next to him, pressing fingers against his neck to take his pulse and checking his forehead for a fever.

Dean straightened. He did feel terrible, but not enough to stop working. "What did you do?" He asked Alice, hoping for something easier to deal with than a fire elemental.

"We just cast a spell. From one of those books in the library."

Sam handed her a lurid purple book. "This one?"

"Yeah. It's not supposed to work. It was just for fun. We couldn't have done this!"

"Who's the we?" Sam asked, knowing full well that demons often could the appearance of teenagers and children to entice others to sell their souls and kill their friends and families.

"Just some kids from school. There were five of us, one of the other books said that's the most powerful number. Because you represent all of the elements."

"Let me guess, you cast this spell at home something went wrong and everything caught fire?" Sam guessed, his arms now crossed over his chest and his frown enough to make Dean shift in his boots.

"We opened this chest." Alice shrugged. "It belonged to Sarah's great-grandmother and Connor said that it was made out of obsidian. So we used it to represent fire. But when we opened the box, stuff came out and the carpet caught fire."

"So you shut it?" Dean sighed, he could see where this was going. Why did people have to mess with things that should stay sealed in obsidian chests?

"We just got out of the house. And then it burned down."

"So you didn't finish the ritual?" Sam asked, flipping through the purple book. "You called the elements and you didn't dispell them or close the circle?" He looked up, eyes scanning her face.

"No, but it's all fake! It doesn't matter if we called on the prince of darkness or-"

"Please tell me you didn't call on the prince of darkness." Dean clenched his hands into fists. People were so stupid!

Alice just looked at him. "Why we would do that? We just followed the ritual in the book. Right up until we summoned fire and opened the box."

"I have an idea. Alice, you'll need to come with us. We're going to walk to your house." Sam tugged on Dean's shirt until his older brother got the idea and moved away from their problem. "I think that we can banish this elemental. It's here because they summoned it and gave it permission and then never closed the circle. I'll get walking. Hang back and try to get Bobby again and then catch up. Can you do that? Do you feel up to it?"

"I'm fine. " Dean pulled out his cell. "We better get walking. It's a couple of hours away right?"

Sam nodded and glanced back at their prisoner. "Have a drink and make sure you tell me when you start feeling worse."

Dean gave in this time and took a tiny sip of water, still trying to save most of it for his brother. He didn't need both of them dehydrated and suffering from heat stroke.

They'd been walking for the better part of three hours and the water was gone when Alice pointed down a dirt road. "I live at the end of this street. But the fire department said not to go home, it could still be burning. They didn't have any water so they just let it burn out."

"That's too bad. Keep walking." Dean pushed her towards the street.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, hanging back a few steps and almost whispering. "You're really red Dean and don't think that I didn't notice you saving most of the water for other people. There is nothing here and no way to get help, don't you dare pass out on me."

Dean's legs took that moment to crumple under him and he cursed as his knees fell hard onto the rocky road. "Dammit Sam." He struggled back to his feet. "Let's gank this elemental. Or trap it, or whatever. After we do that, we can get help. Stop fussing." He pushed forwards, getting a couple steps ahead of Sam.

The house at the end of the road was still smoldering. Only bits and pieces of it remained, the rest turned to ashes that stacked up and filled the basement with bits of twisted plastic and metal topping it all off. Dean sank down to the ground a good 100 feet away, struggling to keep his head up and follow the events.

"Where did you cast the circle?" Sam asked, walking around the pit of fiery ashes.

"The basement." Alice whispered, staring shell-shocked at the remains of her home.

"I need a shovel." Sam said and followed Alice's finger to a small shed nearly a mile away that had somehow escaped the flames.

Alice sat down next to Dean. "Is this my fault?" She asked, voice halting as her eyes filled with tears.

"Don't mess with magic." Dean said, the site of the burned house was bringing him back to years and years ago when he'd sat outside another burning house, in very different circumstances. Sam didn't remember, but he was only six months old when it had happened.

Sam offered him a shovel when he returned. "If you're up for it." He said, pulling on a pair of coveralls over his jean cutoffs, protecting his legs from the hot embers.

Dean really wanted to keep sitting on the hot ground, but he used the shovel as a crutch and got to his feet, joining his brother next to the pit of fire.

"Okay Alice, any idea where in the basement you were? I'd really like to not have to dig this whole thing up." Sam looked back at the girl on the ground.

She joined them at the side of the hole. "Maybe over there? More towards the middle. I think that's where the den was."

Sam nodded and put a foot cautiously into the ash pile. It sunk down nearly a foot, but it held there and he picked his way towards the middle of it all before starting to shovel the ash away and get down to the old floor.

It was hot dirty work and Dean hated the way that the ashes moved under his feet every time he shifted his weight. It was like standing in a canoe, only the canoe was in lava and there were sparks every time his metal shovel sunk into the ruins.

They were nearly halfway down when Dean's legs gave out. The ashy ruins parted underneath him and he sunk into the hot embers, arms flailing as his feet scrambled for purchase in the unstable mess.

"Dean!" Sam's hand grabbed tight onto his arm and hauled him up, pulling on his shoulder joint. His little brother bodily hauled him from the ruins and over to stable ground. Sam pushed his fingers against Dean's neck. "Alice, is there any water left?"

She brought the bottle over to them. "Maybe, it would be just a drop."

Sam snatched the bottle from her hands, "C'mon Dean. How are you holding up?"

Dean shivered as Sam held the bottle to his lips and a dribble of water slid through his dry mouth and wetted his throat. "I'm hot Sam." He shook in his brother's arms. "I'm burning."

"No." Sam undid the overalls and pulled them off. "You've got some small burns from the embers. But you'll be okay. Just hang on. As soon as we trap this thing, help will come."

Dean was left on his side as Sam walked back to the fire pit. Alice joined him this time, sweat pouring off her face as she threw shovelful after shovelful of her life out of the opening that Sam was enlarging. The sounds of the shovels changed as they finished clearing out the debris that had fallen down into the basement. They were onto the room itself now, pulling out destroyed chunks of a sofa and shreds of carpet that had warped up from the floor and twisted into odd melted pieces of plastic and burned cloth.

"That's it!" Alice's cry was tired but triumphant. She took Sam's shovel and they both emerged from the ruins, a shiny black box cradled in Sam's arms. It was smaller than Dean had imagined. They came over to him and Sam stripped out of his overalls and produced the purple spell book from one of his pockets.

"Can we do this with three people?" Dean asked, shakily sitting up and supporting himself on unstable arms.

"I think you mean one." Sam corrected him. "I'm doing this by myself. How far did you get Alice?" He offered her the book.

They waited in silence as she flipped through the book, handing it back creased open near the front. "Here. We called three of the elements: air, earth and fire. That's when we opened the box." She sighed. "Let me help you."

Sam finished reading through the passage she pointed out. "Do you even understand how dangerous this is? You let loose a fire elemental. It will destroy the world if we let it grow. I have to wrestle it back into that little box. And apparently, it will have grown a lot bigger."

Dean skimmed the ritual while Sam did the set up. Drawing a circle on the ground with the ashes and marking places for the three elements that had been called. The water bottle for air, a clump of dry dirt for earth and the damn box for fire.

"Ready?" Sam took his place in the centre of the circle. "I'm going to dismiss the elements that were called and they should dissipate. The elemental should come back and I'll put it in the box."

"I'll help you." Alice had found a pair of leather work gloves in the shed and was sitting behind the box. "I'll open and shut it."

Sam shrugged. "Dean, are you up for the reading?"

Sam's voice sounded funny to Dean, but he nodded and squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of the words on the page. Sam's face was in front of his and his little brother pulled the book out of his hands.

"I'll take that. Hang in there, help will be here soon." Sam said, walking back to the middle of the circle. "Ah, air, I thank you and release you back to the wind." He walked to the water bottle and blew across the top of it, the hollow sound filling the air.

"Earth, I thank you and release you back to the wild." He kicked at the clump of dirt and spread it around with his shoe.

"Fire, I thank you and release you to the flame of life." Sam frowned and glanced at Alice. This was really what passed for magic these days?

Something had happened. The sun, which had set hours ago, like it was supposed to, was rising fast and bathing the burned homestead in light. It burned down on them, coming closer and closer.

"Shut your eyes!" Sam yelled in warning as the great ball of fire barrelled down on them.

Dean felt his skin sear and the smell of burning hair filled his nostrils. He rolled away and buried his head in his arms, trying to breathe the hot air slowly and strain out the ashes through his t-shirt. His eyes were closed, but the light behind his eyelids was moving around and around and coming in and out. And that was the last thing he remembered.

Alice slammed the lid down on the obsidian case and Sam slid the lock bolts into place, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the burning pain that covered his skin.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, heading over to Dean.

"It's raining!"Alice jumped up and Sam took that to mean that she was all right. And it was. Rain, cold hard water was falling from the sky and Sam opened his arms and mouth to it, soaking in the coolness before remembering that Dean needed him.

"Dean, Dean." Sam rolled his brother over, his concern growing when Dean didn't protest the manhandling. "Hey, wake up." Dean's face was red and dry. Sam pressed his hand to Dean's forehead worriedly, it was hot and there were black lines where his eyebrows had been. "It's finished, I trapped it." He said, taking Dean's pulse, it was too fast.

"Alice, call 911. Tell them there are three of us that need help and that Dean's got heatstroke. Then go get the tarp from the shed." Sam barked at her, tossing his phone in her direction before picking up his shovel again. It didn't take him long to dig a shallow trench in the ground and as the rain pelted down, it ran into the trench and it began to soak into the ground, puddling a little as the ground struggled to absorb it all.

"Okay Dean. You're going to fine. Help is really on the way now." Sam pulled off his brother's t-shirt and used it to wipe the dirt and sweat from Dean's face and arms. He took the tarp from Alice and gave her an inquisitive look, she shook her head and gestured to the phone she was holding to her ear.

Sam shook the dust and spiders out of the tarp before laying it across the trench he'd dug. Water pooled in the plastic and more soaked into the ground beneath it. "All right Dean. I'm going to cool you down." He rolled his brother along the ground, taking care to support his head and keep his face out of the dirt. Dean's body dropped into the trench a little harder than he intended, but even the impact of that didn't wake his brother up.

Sam pulled off his own t-shirt, ringing the water and sweat out over his brother's chest then using the damp cloth to rub some moisture over Dean's face and head. What he really needed was water and ice.

"Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink." He murmured, half remembering things he'd read ages ago in school. "Do you remember that Dean? I said that to Dad and he gave us that talk about water purification and drinking piss. You dared me to drink my piss after that and I wouldn't. So you told me that I would die in the desert." He sniffed, the rain was dripping across his face and making it hard to see.

"Uh, Agent Stark?" Alice offered him back his phone. "They're sending an ambulance for us but she said that it was going to take awhile."

Sam nodded. "Bring me the obsidian box and that book on witchcraft please." He hated how he'd been acting towards this girl. Yes, she could have destroyed the world, but she didn't mean to and why should she have expected her spell to actually work? But looking down and seeing Dean burning up in the trench fuelled his anger and he couldn't find it in himself to be kind.

She carried the box carefully, placing it on the ground next to him before offering him the little purple book that had started this whole mess. Sure, maybe the fire elemental had been in the obsidian box, but without the books, she never would have cast the circle and let the monster out.

"Don't fool around with magic." Sam warned her, pulling a lighter out of his pocket. "Agent Banner and I, we take care of problems like this. And if you were a little older, or if you had known what you were doing, you wouldn't be walking away from this." He flicked the lighter and put the book above it, guarding the flame from the rain until the book was ablaze.

"Toss this into the pit. And make sure if burns up completely." Sam handed her the book, careful to avoid singeing his fingers.

They sat in silence. He watched Dean, fingers on his pulse, wiping down his face and chest whenever his t-shirt was wet enough and she watched the book burning in the embers of her house and Sam couldn't feel anything but anger and contempt for her.

They heard the ambulance long before it arrived. Sam put his shirt back on and walked out to the end of the driveway to wave them down, make sure they didn't pass on by.

"My brother." He pointed towards the tarp that stuck out of the trench he'd dug. "He's got sick stroke. He was sick yesterday too."

One of the attendants went running and the other tried to get him to sit down, because they were going to do their best and they needed to look at him too. But Sam shook his head and pointed off to Alice.

"Check her first. I don't know how she's doing."

He helped the one paramedic lift Dean from the trench onto a stretcher and he helped them put that into the back of the ambulance before climbing in and watching as they drove down the bumpy road and Dean moaned in his sleep.

It was forty tense minutes until they stopped driving and the back door of the ambulance were pulled open. They were in a field awash in mud and peppered with white tents.

"It's just a field hospital." The paramedic unloading Dean assured him. "We've called in for reinforcements in the aftermath."

Sam got out of the back and let Alice hang onto his arm as she climbed down behind him. Someone in combat fatigues guided them into a tent and Sam sat on the cot they indicated, realising for the first time that he was shirtless and covered in dirt and ashes streaked from the rain.

"What's your name?" A young man in blue asked him, clutching a clipboard to his chest.

"Where's my brother?" Sam asked, standing up even though the world was starting to spin a little around him.

"What's his name?" The man asked, looking down at his clipboard. "Once you've been seen to, I can have you moved there."

"Dean, his name is Dean and we came in together."

\--

His skin was prickling. Dean had gotten a lot of sunburns in his life and he knew the stages. First there was tightness, like he was going to shed. Then it burned until he rubbed the aloe in, and as his skin drank it all in it would prickle until it got back to the burning.

Dean opened his eyes to semi-darkness. There was a white roof above him, but he could hear rain drumming down on it and he was wet and damp and the all too familiar hospital smells were almost present, but the smell of earth and mud was stronger.

"Dean?"

"Sam?" He turned his head, nausea building as his gaze swept the environment.

"You're actually awake?" Sam asked, and Dean's eyes slowly sharpened. Sam was lying down on a cot next to him.

"Yeah. Where are we?" His mouth was thick and furry, but not dry.

"It's a field hospital. We've been here for almost a day now." Sam yawned and reached a hand out to his brother. "You were in really bad shape."

Dean sat up slowly. There were monitors taped to his chest and three different lines going into his arms and he wasn't going to think about what was going on under his hospital gown. Plastic bags full of water were under his back, in his crotch and they'd been in his armpits too, but sitting up had displaced them.

"You're awake!" A medic of some kind in military dress opened the flap on the tent and sloshed though the mud over to his cot.

"Yeah." Dean groaned. "Can I have some water?"

The medic handed him a water bottle with a teat on top. "I'm Medic Waller. How are you feeling?" He waited until Dean was done with the water to take his temperature and remove the bags of water.

"Better." Dean sucked hard at the water bottle, but only a little was coming out. "What happened to my brother? And when can I get out of here?" He pulled the teat off the bottle and swallowed down half of it before pouring the rest over his head.

Medic Waller glared at him and snatched the bottle back. "Careful, you'll make yourself sick if you drink too fast. Your brother's dehydrated and he's got burns on his hands, face and legs but he said that you saved the drinking water for him and that made a difference."

"Great. So when can I blow this joint?" Dean flopped back onto the hard bed, the tubes and monitors pulling at his sudden motion.

The medic shook his head and prodded around the base of one of the drips. "At least another 72 hours. Your temperature is still high and the local police would like to talk to you."

Dean glanced worriedly at his brother, this time the world didn't spin around him when he moved his head and that was definite improvement.

"Don't get up." The medic warned. "I'll be back in a moment." And he left the tent, a cold breeze blowing through when the tent flap opened.

"What the hell Sam?" Dean demanded. "Do they still think we're feds? We need to get out of here."

"It can wait." Sam propped himself up, avoiding the tubes that he had running from his arms. "You could have died Dean! I don't care if we have to break out of jail later, we're waiting until you're stronger. The Impala is still out of commission and we'd have to walk there. So we're waiting." He collapsed back onto the bed.

The medic came back into with tent with a bag of supplies and Dean dropped the conversation, it wasn't for anyone else's ears. He was happy to have one of the tubes removed though and the monitors on his chest, even if they left bright red stinging circles on his chest.

Sam was asleep when the medic left and as much as Dean wanted to get out of there, he fell joined his brother in sleep before they could continue their conversation. He slept through most of the night, waking up when they came in to check his temperature and change the ice bags that were still working on cooling him down.

Medic Waller woke him in the morning and offered another of the water bottles with a teat on it along with a bowl of the thinnest oatmeal Dean had ever seen. But he took both items and made quick work of them while Sam was checked over.

"So, can I leave today?" Dean asked once the water bottle was empty.

"The answer is still no." The medic was changing his bags of fluids and taking one from the end of the cot. "Although your temperature has almost come down to normal. Just stay put for now. The local police will probably get to your tent this morning."

When he left Dean sat up and started fiddling with one of the tubes in his arm. "You hear that Sam? The police are going to be here this morning." He winced as the catheter pulled free of his arm and a trickle of blood ran down towards his wrist. "We're leaving."

"Dean, no! We're waiting until you've recovered."

"You heard the man Sam. My temperature is practically normal." Dean pulled the second drip from his arm and clamped a hand over them to stop the bleeding. "C'mon, I'm not carrying your ass out of here."

Sam sat up. "Fine. But grab those bags, I'm making sure that you'll recover from this. Dehydration is serious."

They made short work of the remaining tubes and monitors, Sam found a plastic bag to carry the medical supplies in and made Dean load them in.

They had no shoes or clothes and the mud squished cold under their feet. But Sam led the way, out of the tent into the snow. The temperature had sunk back to its normal lows after they'd captured the fire element and the rain had turned to snow and had been falling for almost as long as Dean had been sleeping.

"In here." Dean finally pulled back the flap to a supply tent and let it fall behind him, keeping the cold air outside. They dressed in too small scrubs and covered their dirty feet with slippers before ransacking the medical supplies. He grabbed the regular things: antibiotics, pain killing narcotics and suture kits, and groaned when Sam insisted on IV supplies and more of the fluids that Dean had unhooked himself from.

The camp was mostly empty and Sam led them to the edge, producing a paperclip to let them into a pickup that had been left amongst the ambulances, tanks and hummers. Dean climbed in beside him and was asleep by the time Sam had the engine going and they were speeding away from the field hospital.

"Wake up Dean. We're back at the motel."

Dean opened his eyes. There was a cool wind blowing through the cabin of the pickup and he grudgingly accepted Sam's help climbing out and walking the ten steps to the back of the Impala. It was warm in the car and Sam settled him in among blankets and he could hear the purr of the car again.

"Where are we going?" Dean asked when all the doors were closed and Sam was fussing with his hand, trying to get a needle back in his hand. He twitched at a false start and resisted the impulse to pull away from the pain.

"To Bobby's." Sam got the needle in and connected the catheter up to a bag of saline hanging over the front seat. "He'll keep the elemental stored up for us."

"Good." Dean yawned.

"And we'll stay there for a little while. Until you've recovered." Sam said, putting the car in gear and turning slowly out of the motel parking lot.

"Tell me when we get there." Dean closed his eyes and yawned again, curling up in the backseat of his car.


End file.
